By Bill Sullivan, Media Relations for Chicko Motorsports
PENNGROVE, CA (8-8-10) – It doesn’t matter how far you advance in a career or how fame and success can take you far away from your home, it’s always a pleasure to return to your roots and reflect where it all started. For sprint car racer Alissa Geving, Saturday night was just that as the 18-year-old from Penngrove had the opportunity to return to her home track of Petaluma Speedway in victorious fashion.
“It’s always great to come back and race at home, I love the local fans,” said Geving. “This is where my grandfather raced and where I sat in the stands with my Mom and watched my Dad win here so many times. It’s special to me and my family and tonight was a really nice comeback.”
Geving’s return to the fast 3/8 mile dirt track on the Sonoma-Marin County Fairgrounds was a true spectacle for her devoted fans. After missing her popular #3x Chicko Motorsports Sprint Car in the weekly All Pro series they celebrated her return in victorious fashion after the former Rookie of the Year and two time Petaluma Speedway track champion drove to the checkered flag in the 25-lap feature race.
“I love racing on this track, I’m so comfortable here and the surface is so hooked up all night long,” said Geving. “This team has been working so hard on the road with the Golden State Series it’s nice to come here tonight and bring home a win. We all needed this tonight and hopefully we can carry the momentum in the final GSC race next week.”
In qualifying, Geving turned the second fastest lap of the night with a 12:745 second lap on the 3/8 mile. In heat racing she finished third and secured the second place starting position for the 25-lap A-feature. Billy Aton of Benecia sat on the pole for the event in which Geving would return to her well known winning ways.
At the waving of the green flag, Aton charged into the lead as Geving began her pursuit of the North Bay’s newest young gun. After chasing down Aton for the first ten laps, Geving turned her fastest lap of the night on the 11th circuit when she reached a top speed of 107.73 mph on the AMB transponders. As she gained her momentum she overtook Aton for the lead in turns one and two and then began approaching lapped.
As the Geving led Aton into the third and fourth turns, they worked their way into lapped traffic and approached Adrian Betourney. As they drove three wide through the turn things got a little two close for comfort when Betourney and Geving briefly made contact. The collision sent Betourney tumbling off the turn and Geving continued without damage.
Once in front, Geving maintained her lead all the way to the checkered flag where she scored her first victory of the season before an ecstatic crowd that has missed watching the local favorite since she defected to the traveling Golden State Challenge Series.
“The car was great tonight and the track was really fast out there,” said Geving. “Things got a little close in lapped traffic for a few seconds and I thought that one was going to cost me. I really want to thanks all my sponsors that came out here tonight to watch me at home and for their support this year as well as my crew for all their hard work.”
This Saturday night, Geving and her Chicko Motorsports will wrap up their campaign in the finale of the Golden State Challenge Series for 410 Sprint Cars. The venue returns to the high banks of Placerville Speedway for the final event of 2010. Geving recently advanced to fourth in the series point standings where she sits behind leader Kyle Larson, Brent Kaeding and Evan Suggs. She is currently 18-points in front of former series champion Jonathan Allard.
“I’m looking forward to going back to Placerville,” said Geving. “We use to struggle up there but now we have it figured out and we’ve had good runs there in our past two visits.”
In her last Golden State Challenge event at Placerville Speedway Geving drove from 16th to 11th in the feature event. Prior to that back in March she made a charge from the 15th starting position to finish 9th at one of the tightest, toughest tracks on the Golden State Challenge Series tour.
Chicko Motorsports would like to thank their current dedicated marketing partners including, Tillett Tool, Pit Stop USA, Auto Repairs Unlimited and Matt Cordeiro Enterprises. Additional associate sponsors and promotional considerations include K&N Filters, Napa Auto Parts, Flowmaster Mufflers, Hodgin and Son Tree Service, Allstar Performance, Santa Rosa Auto Parts, Jeremy’s Chair Repair, Afex Graphics, Simpson Racing Products, 21st Century Health Club, Vanlare Steering Repair, Pro Shocks, ALC Machine and JW Web Design.